1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an attraction mechanism which attracts a plate-shaped object by static electricity, and to surface processing in which prescribed processing is carried out on the surface of a plate-shaped object by holding the plate-shaped object by such an electrostatic attracting mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
The electrostatic attraction mechanism which attracts a plate-shaped object by static electricity is multipurpose technology which holds the plate-shaped object in position without causing damage thereto. In particular, use can be made of electrostatic chucking technology to hold in a prescribed position a semiconductor device which is to be processed in a surface processing device of any type which is used when manufacturing electronic devices such as LSIs and the like.
FIG. 5 shows an outlined configuration of a conventional surface processing device provided with an electrostatic attraction mechanism. In order to process the plate-shaped object 9 in a prescribed atmosphere, the surface processing device has a processing chamber 1, a pump system 11 which pumps out the interior of the processing chamber 1 and a processing gas feed system 12 which feeds a prescribed processing gas into the interior of the processing chamber 1. The electrostatic attraction mechanism is provided in order to hold the plate-shaped object 9 in a prescribed position inside the processing chamber 1.
The electrostatic attraction mechanism includes an electrostatic attraction stage 2 mounted inside the chamber 1 and an attraction power source 3 which provides the voltage which is used for electrostatic attraction in the electrostatic attraction stage 2. The electrostatic attraction stage 2 includes a stage main body 21, a dielectric block 22 which is fixed to the stage main body 21 and a pair of attraction terminals 23, 24 which are mounted inside the dielectric block 22.
The attraction power source 3 applies direct voltages between the pair of attraction terminals 23, 24. When voltage is applied to the pair of attraction terminals 23, 24, static electricity is induced on the surface by means of dielectric polarization of the dielectric block 22 and the plate-shaped object is electrostatically attracted.